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Tag: Market Analysis

  • Everything You Need to Know About Online Auction Websites

    We use the internet for almost every process, ordering a pizza, buying a television, sharing a moment with a friend, or sending a picture over instant messaging. The internet has revolutionized everything and will continue to do so in future as well. It has transformed traditional businesses into online businesses, a traditional marketplace to online marketplaces.  One such marketplace that the internet has given rise to is online auctions. It isn’t something new online auctions date back to 1995, later that people found online auctions as a vast online marketplace to buy and sell anything to everything.

    Online auctions have considerably increased the variety of goods and services that can be bought and sold using auctions along with expanding the possibilities of conducting auctions. In the current web environment, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of online auction websites dedicated to online auction practices. In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about online auctions. So, let’s get right into the business.

    What Is an Online Auction?
    Types of Online Auctions
    Is Online Auction and Bidding Legal in India?
    How to Run an Online Auction in India?
    Benefits of Online Auction Sites
    Drawbacks of Online Auction Sites
    How to Protect Yourself Against Online Fraud?

    What Is an Online Auction?

    An online auction is an auction that takes place via the internet, allowing users to sell or bid for products and services online. Online auctions allow sellers to reach larger audiences, in different locations and geographical areas. Different sellers offer different kinds of products on a web-based platform.

    Online Auction Market
    Online Auction Market

    Types of Online Auctions

    Live Online Auctions

    A Live Online Auction is a combination of a Live and Internet Auction. You can bid live and onsite at the Auction or you can bid live from your computer at home or work. An online clerk will relay your bids to the Auctioneer and you will bid against floor bidders who are at the auction and other online bidders. The Auctioneer will ask for the next bid increment, If someone bids for $60 the online clerk will update the asked bid and your screen would show that the requested bid is $60. This process will continue until there is no further competitive bidding.

    Online Only Auctions

    An online-only auction is an auction that is held online only and there is no life in-person bidding available. Bidding can be done from your computer with an internet connection at home or at work. This type of auction will be a catalogued auction with each item having a lot #. If a bidder is interested in Lot #12, they have to register and place a bid on lot #12. This process of bidding occurs up until the scheduled lot time is closed.

    It is perfectly legal to start an Online Bidding Auction site in India. Before doing that you need to follow some steps and they are:

    • You will be required to comply with various provisions of the Information Technology Act.
    • Your domain name needs to be registered.
    • Online Payment Gateway should be RBI approved.
    • You should have a dedicated 24×7 customer helpline.
    • Your company should be registered, trademark and copyrights also need to be registered.

    How to Run an Online Auction in India?

    Once you decide to hold an online auction, you need to follow several steps and those steps are:

    Registration at Online Auction Sites

    The first step for both the buyer and seller before participating in an online auction is to register on an online bidding site. There are several online bidding sites available where you can register yourself as a Seller or a Bidder. Registration is required to keep track of the items you bid on or sell.

    Listing the Items on the Online Auction Sites

    If you are a seller you can list one or more items for sale on the bidding site and set up a starting price for bidding. The seller is expected to give a complete description and specifications of the items on sale. Mostly, a specified time period is set up for bidding. In some cases, the bidding process takes place live on a specific date at a pre-specified time when bidders log in with their IDs and place their bids.

    Listing the items on the Online Auction Sites
    Listing the items on the Online Auction Sites

    Setup a Payment Method

    If you are the seller, you have to set up multiple payment options for the convenience of the buyers, which include RBI approved payment gateways like – CCAvenue, Oxigen & PayPal or Debit Cards, Credit Cards, Wallets, PayTM, UPI, Net Banking, Cash Cards & EMI options.

    Bidding on Online Auction Sites

    Buyers visit the auction website, select the preferable item and bid on them during the online auction duration a specified time for the auction is allotted for every item.

    Online Bidding

    The online bidding for each auction closes at the specified time. In the case of multiple bidders, the bidder with the highest online bid at the end of the auction is likely to buy the items. If there is no online bidding at or above the reserve price, the auction closes without a winner.

    At the end of a successful online auction, You can communicate with the buyer over an email to arrange for payment and delivery of the goods. The sale is at the discretion of the seller. It is the choice of the seller to sell or not to sell the item to the highest bidder.

    Benefits of Online Auction Sites

    Some of the benefits of online auctions are:

    • Better Deals on products
    • Variety of products
    • No need to physically attend the auction

    Drawbacks of Online Auction Sites

    There are some drawbacks of online auctions as well and they are:

    • A website may go down for multiple reasons.
    • Since attending an online auction is easy, everyone can join in. That means you will have to outbid a lot more people. And that becomes harder as the number of bidders goes up.
    • You don’t get to inspect the item you are bidding on. Sometimes the pictures of the products can be misleading.

    How to Protect Yourself Against Online Fraud?

    Use Sites That Contain Only HTTPS URLs

    If you are on any site that you are looking to make a purchase from or enter personal information into, make sure that the secure icon is displayed, and that the very first letter preceding the “www” is https://. By virtue, HTTPS encryption is done bi-directionally, which means that the data is encrypted at both the client and server sides.

    Use Strong Passwords

    The more complex your password is, the more security it provides for your account. By using a simple password, it becomes very easy for a hacker to simply guess your password without even having to know you or take further action. When creating passwords, use strong password criteria such as passwords that contain multiple instances of numbers, upper and lower case letters, and special characters when available. Make sure to change your passwords from time to time.

    The basic method for cybercriminals is to send out a mass e-mail containing an attachment or a hyperlink. The attachment is malware and any hyperlink will be a website masquerading as something legitimate. The goal is to trick the e-mail recipient into downloading the attachment (exposing their PC to the malware), clicking the link to a website that may be infected with malware, or asking for confidential data such as credit card numbers to be entered.

    Keep Personal Information Confidential

    Unless you are very confident about the site you are using, be wary of entering information on sites that are looking for your personal information. Be especially wary of sites asking for any financial information, address and birthday, or middle names. Most sites do not need this information and have very little use to collect this, especially all in one place.

    Even after all these if you fall victim to online auction fraud in India, you can consult a cyber lawyer and file a complaint about online fraud with the cyber crime cell in your city.

    Conclusion

    Even though the online bidding process is transparent, one cannot eliminate the chances of fraud when entering the online bidding market. Online auction sites Display a wide range of goods and are a growing community of buyers and sellers. Online auction sites are a prime example of how the internet has changed the ways in which modern business works and the endless possibilities the internet holds.

    FAQs

    Online auction is legal in India and there are many websites that host them.

    Which is the largest online auction suite?

    eBay is the largest online auction site.

    What do you mean by online auctions?

    An online auction is an auction that takes place via the internet, allowing users to sell or bid for products and services online.

    What are the two types of online auctions?

    There are two types of Online auctions and they are:

    • Live online auctions
    • Online only auctions

  • How to Do a Competitor Analysis in 5 Simple Steps?

    Being involved in a business means being a competitor among several others. Value and appeal are always at the top of people’s minds. Whether you’re the biggest fish in the ocean or not, you must know how your competitors work. Want to know their secrets? Marketing analysis is where you study and identify information about a business or product while assessing its individual qualities and drawbacks.

    Analysis and studying your competitors can reveal a lot of information that you may have overlooked. This information can help your business grow tremendously and bring in new customers. Getting to know your competitors not only helps you be prepared but also helps you learn from their mistakes. That being said, let’s look into how to analyze your competitor.

    Prerequisites to Analyse Your Competitors
    How to Analyse Your Competitor?
    1. Identify and Evaluate
    2. Tracking and Spying
    3. Find Out What Makes Them Unique
    4. Analyze Customer Ratings
    5. Evaluate Strengths and Weaknesses

    Prerequisites to Analyse Your Competitors

    Before you head on to analyze your competitors and take in information, there are a few questions you have to ask yourself. These may be according to your preferences depending on the business. These questions when answered should help you gain an advantage over your competitors. You will be more focused and organized once you have an overview. Some of these questions can be:

    • What about my competitor’s business do I want to know the most?
    • How long has my competitor been in the industry?
    • What is their strongest selling point?
    • What technologies are they using?
    • How big of a threat are they?

    These questions will help enhance the speed of your analysis process. Having a vision is crucial as it can be overwhelming to process all the information together. Once that’s done you can begin analyzing your competitor.

    How to Analyse Your Competitor?

    You might be surprised how a simple and easy-to-do analysis can reveal a lot about your competitors. This information can help you gain an advantage over them and improve your own business. Here we’ll look at 5 simple steps to analyze your competitor. The tools and methodology will also be explained for each of the steps below:

    1. Identify and Evaluate

    The first step is to identify your competitor. This means that you need to collect more statistical information rather than the company name and description. Finding out exactly where they rank up and how dominating they are will help you to evaluate their threat to your business. There are several free tools available to help you assess your rival.

    SimilarWeb is a web traffic and analysis tool used by several businesses. It allows you to get the SEO rank of a website and details such as engagements, traffic by countries, the sources of traffic, etc. It even shows you a list of similar websites and competitors. This data can reveal their source of customers and a general idea of how good their website is. You must evaluate your results and understand your competitor before moving on to the next step.

    SimilarWeb results (Identifying your competitor)

    2. Tracking and Spying

    Observation is key when performing an analysis. To know exactly what your competitor does to maintain their position you must observe and track their actions. This is rather an easy thing to do in this digital era where nothing goes unnoticed. Observe them for a specific period. This could be anything from a week to an entire month depending on the kind of results you get. Try to visit their website often. What changes are they making concerning the industry? This could be the information that your business is lacking or something you could improve at.

    Tracking Your Competitors

    Some tools make this process much easier. Google Alerts and Brandwatch can track your competitor and give you alerts when certain events are triggered. These events can be when their traffic goes up a certain number, a certain page gets more visits or a social media post on trending. Tools like BuiltWith help you track the technologies used. Once you get these alerts, you can personally read the posts and know exactly what they did to get the extra attention. Progressive tracking can give you valuable insight into an organization.

    Spying on Your Competitors

    While on the other hand, one of the tricks that can be used in getting hold of trending advertisements of your competitors and their their ad strategies is Ad Spying. Ad spying tools like AdSpyder help in spying on the competitors’ ads on all the major social media platforms like Facebook, Google, Youtube, and Instagram, and also on search engines like Yahoo and Bing.

    3. Find Out What Makes Them Unique

    Every business has something about them that makes them different. When it comes to marketing it’s not just the product that makes a difference. Look into their socials, try to find out exactly how they advertise besides their website. How are the targeted customers drawn to them? Why would someone pick them over your business? Find out these factors and use them to boost your business. Although this doesn’t mean you should steal ideas from your rivals. It means that you can gain insight and use it as inspiration when you do your marketing.

    4. Analyze Customer Ratings

    Look at the business from a customer’s point of view. What seems appealing to the customers may be what drives their business. Check the rating and reviews of the product or business using platforms like Trustpilot and Sitejabber. Knowing what the customers think about a service can help you get a direct overview of the company. You can also use surveys and analytical tools for this purpose. Customers fuel the business. Knowing the customer mindset can help you understand the business marketing efficiently. This also helps you test the positive and negative aspects of the business.

    Sitejabber reviews (analyzing customer ratings of a competitor)

    5. Evaluate Strengths and Weaknesses

    No business is perfect at what they do. Yet they are successful because they’re good at certain things. These are defined as the strengths of any business. While analyzing your competitor it’s important that you know and accepts their strengths. Learning from your competitor and getting better is a huge benefit for any business. There are also weaknesses. These could be anything from a flawed marketing strategy to bad customer service. Knowing the weaknesses of your competitor allows you to exploit them by doing the deed better yourself. You not only have a chance of converting customers to your side but also improve in the long run.

    FAQs

    What is Marketing analysis?

    Marketing analysis is where you study and identify information about a business or product while assessing its individual qualities and drawbacks.

    What are the 5 steps to analyse your competitor?

    Identify and evaluate, Tracking and spying, What makes them unique, Analyse customer ratings, and Evaluate strengths and weaknesses.

    Why must one track the actions of competitors?

    To know exactly what your competitor does to maintain their position you must observe and track their actions.

  • Why Business Analysts are Important for Organisational Growth

    In today’s world, growth and development are important in every sector. There is development in technology, infrastructure, science, as well as management. This rapid growth is making lots of things go outdated. The products or services without technological changes are also out of the market now.

    There are lots of changes that are taking place in a business environment. The traditional methods and techniques can no longer make them grow and succeed. The new economic policies, as well as change in the consumer mindset, are also a threat to businesses. So, therefore, to ensure continuity, a business has to upgrade itself and make suitable changes. If the business is, then it will be difficult for the business to survive.

    Who are Business Analysts?
    Important Roles of a Business Analyst

    Who are Business Analysts?

    Who is a Business Analyst and what is his role

    Business Analysts are professionals who are experts in analyzing the changes and also creating processes to implement the changes in the business. In this business era, the competition among the brands is also at a high level. The brands with higher technology/best solutions/standardization are quickly replacing the traditional businesses.

    Therefore, business continuity and survival have somewhat become difficult for the companies, this has created the need for business analysis. So, Business Analysts became a growing professionals in this corporate world. Every business needs Business Analysts in their companies to help them survive in this highly competitive corporate world.

    Professionals keep constantly checking business performance and its positioning and keep identifying all the key areas which require change, or modifications. Business Analysts help businesses adapt to strategies effectively and efficiently.

    Important Roles of a Business Analyst

    The roles and responsibilities of a business analyst differ from business to business. Businesses in different sectors require variable business analysis, But there are common roles and responsibilities which a business analyst has to perform in an organization.

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    Business Continuity
    Making Strategies
    Analyzing Upcoming Changes
    Data Analysis
    Growth of companies in comparison to growth in the sector
    Make cost-effective plans
    Analyzing and Solving Business Problems
    Future Projected Goals Analysis

    Business Continuity

    Business Analysts focus completely on understanding the business, workflow, positioning, and competency. The ability of a business to sustain itself and its capacity is understood by them. Once they collect the information and knowledge, they focus on all the points interconnected and linked with the company. They keep a factor check on such points to ensure business continuity and smoother operations.

    Market Analysis

    Business Analysts do the market analysis of the products and services offered by the business. Several factors associated with market analysis like the product, pricing, positioning, promotion, etc. are considered by analysts. Market analysis is done to ensure that the product/service offered by the business is capable to achieve its objectives. Business analysts make a complete assessment of all the marketing factors which can impact their business. In large organizations, market analysts are the ones who perform such functions, But in most organizations, it is the business analysts who focus on the market part.

    Making Strategies

    Business Analysts are also the strategy makers of the organization. They create different strategies to help the businesses continue their operations and achieve their objectives. And to do so, they build several strategies like growth strategy, market strategy, team strategy, and more.

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    Analyzing Upcoming Changes

    Predicting upcoming changes helps the organization to prepare itself for the situation. It will give an idea of how to change things to move the business in the right direction.

    Data Analysis

    Business analysts gather information associated with the business in different ways. They collect the data and keep a record of such data, These data are used to do further planning. The analysts identify many alternatives to gather more results. Out of all these alternatives, they focus on the ones which can give maximum output to the business. For Example, they can select the one alternative which gives maximum returns in fewer resources.

    Growth of companies in comparison to growth in the sector

    The Business Analysts do the complete industry analysis in which the business is involved. If the business is dealing in the dairy industry, then they will do a complete analysis of the industry. After analysis, they will compare the growth of the business in comparison to the industry, If the business lacks behind the usual industry growth then they make sure and fix the problem.

    Make cost-effective plans

    Business Analyst's Definition
    Cost-Effective Planning

    The business always focuses on more output at minimum possible costs. So the business analysts create cost-effective plans to implement the required changes. There are often lots of ways and plans, but the ones which are less costly and impactful will be more productive for the organization. It will save the organization extra expenses. Therefore, analysts focus on making cost-effective plans to implement business changes.

    Analyzing and Solving Business Problems

    Business Analysts are much involved in solving real business problems. They identify and analyze threats and then try to solve the problems. They have to maintain their speed of solving problems before time. Analysts are much concerned with ensuring business health. Therefore, they try to solve business problems as soon as they can.

    Future Projected Goals Analysis

    A company has many future projected plans and goals. All these goals and plans are analyzed by business analysts to create a process and method to achieve the projected goals efficiently. They focus on minimizing time duration, making the best use of resources, and cost analysis. Cost analysis is usually done to make sure that the business can achieve its future projected goals under the estimated cost.

    Business Analysts work more on data, and reports and make decisions based according to such reports. The growing competition in the market is increasing the need for more business analysts in the corporate world. This makes business analysts a growing profession in the corporate world.

    Conclusion

    Business Analysts understand the requirements of the business and help in predicting the problems in future. They work towards the development of the organization by building a marketing strategy, researching the efficient way to run the business and interpreting the data, Hence business analysts are considered important for organizational growth.

    FAQS

    Who are Business Analysts?

    Business Analysts are professionals who are experts in analyzing the changes and also creating processes to implement the changes in the business.

    What is Market Analysis?

    The process of collecting information that affects a marketplace is called Market Analysis.

    Why is Business Analysis necessary?

    Business analysis is important to identify vulnerabilities and issues in the business or its strategies and help implement necessary solutions.

    Why are cost-effective plans important?

    Cost-effective plans are important because it helps the organisation to focus on more output with lower expenses.

  • What are the Best Small Businesses to Start in an Uncertain Market?

    It should come as no surprise that the global economy is set to contract by the end of 2020, with the coronavirus having impacted significantly on both developed and emerging economies alike.

    In total, the world’s economy is projected to shrink by at least 4.9% this year, with this having been revised from a forecasted contraction of 3% in April. The US economy is expected to be one of the worst hit with a 5.9% decline, although the UK and a host of European nations have been similarly impacted.

    However, some firms and marketplaces have fared relatively well amidst the chaos, and we’ll look at some examples while asking why they should offer inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs.

    Ecommerce
    The Development of Workplace Technology Solutions
    Finance and Market Trading

    Ecommerce

    Let’s start with the obvious; as the impact of social distancing measures and lockdowns has compelled more people to shop online throughout 2020.

    Of course, this has become the best small business and accelerated a trend that was already prevalent prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, with estimates suggesting that the pandemic will add a total of £5.3 billion to UK ecommerce during 2020.

    The market leader for growth in this sector is Amazon, with this company remaining a trail-blazer that continues to influence the future direction of the industry. Interestingly, Amazon also offers support and increased exposure for affiliates and start-up ecommerce ventures, meaning that a raft of different companies can profit significantly in 2020.

    Small businesses
    Small Businesses

    From the perspective of new traders and aspiring entrepreneurs, ecommerce also represents an accessible and low-overhead market that can drive higher short-term profits. This is an important consideration in the near-term, especially given the socio-economic impact of Covid-19 on consumers and households.

    The Development of Workplace Technology Solutions

    While Zoom stock may have endured something of a correction of late, this video conferencing tool experienced huge, triple-digit growth during the first three quarters of 2020 .

    This came as a growing number of people began to work from home in the name of social distancing, with 46.6% of the UK workforce operating remotely regularly throughout April. Of this number, an estimated 86% did so as a result of Covid-19, creating a sudden spike in the demand for workplace tech.

    While this demand is beginning to fall, however, companies are increasingly inclined to offer remote and flexible working directives to their employees, and in this respect, companies that develop accessible tech solutions will have an opportunity to enjoy considerable growth in the near and medium-term.

    Of course, this is a specialist and relatively high-cost market in which to enter, but entrepreneurs with technology expertise could well target it with some success as 2021 gets underway.

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    Finance and Market Trading

    You may have noticed that accountancy and similar financial services have come to represent increasingly attractive markets in recent times, thanks largely to the fact that it’s relatively easy to market these as a start-up venture or freelancer.

    On a similar note, we’ve also seen an uptick in the financial market trading and participation in the digital age, as technological advancement and innovation have broken down many of the historical barriers that once surrounded the marketplace.

    Of course, you may need some academic accreditations and advanced learning before entering into these markets, especially if you’re going to offer widespread financial services. In the case of accountancy, for example, you’ll need a relevant higher education degree and a license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) before providing advice and services.

    When it comes to financial market trading, you’ll have to build a solid foundation of knowledge, before using online tools such as demo accounts to gain risk-free and practical experience of your chosen marketplace.

    FAQs

    What are the most successful small businesses to start?

    Most successful small businesses:-

    • Ecommerce
    • The Development of Workplace Technology Solutions
    • Finance and Market Trading

    How can I start my own business with no money?

    Choose a small business idea with low startup costs. If you still don’t have enough money, you can finance your business idea through crowdfunding or investors.